Living and Working on Lundy Island
with warden Beccy MacDonald
with thanks to Beccy and the entire team from the island, MS Oldenburg and the shore offices
filmed & edited by Simon Vacher, music by Rosamund Harpur, directed & produced by Jo Stewart-Smith
filmed & edited by Simon Vacher, music by Rosamund Harpur, directed & produced by Jo Stewart-Smith
After watching the film, scroll down to read our video blog with 4 more out takes (mini videos) from our filming trip!
Living & working on Lundy island - the making of...
‘Marmite’
laughs Beccy MacDonald, the warden who narrates our Lundy story: you either love it or hate it. I suspect those
who dislike Lundy either had a rough
crossing, or can’t cope with the wild, openness and lack of mobile signal and
internet. I love Lundy and each time I visit, I discover a new patch and meet,
new interesting people. The issue as
always was how to do justice to the island and its team of workers in five
minutes.
We
had a rougher crossing this time but amazingly Simon made it across without
being sick. As we drew nearer the island, we had an unexpected visitor –not the
whales or dolphins we were hoping for, but the air sea rescue helicopter from
Chivenor, practising landing a man on the rollicking deck.
Hats off to these guys - for all the work they do looking after those of us on the water. We will miss them when they leave. Determined to get some footage of Beccy, before any mishaps, as soon as we jumped off the boat we hiked up the cliff path and followed her on a typical whirlwind day... |
Those of you
following Boat Stories will know that
Simon and I originally went out last September – hoping to film Beccy surveying
seals from a dive boat. Many of the local charter boats welcome Beccy on board
so she can survey the seals from the water. But on day one, before we filmed
anything of Beccy we lost our principal camera over the cliff – (see my blog on
A day out with the dive boat Obsession 11.) Luckily, Beccy and Lundy island welcomed
us back for a second attempt this May…
So I’m going to jump straight to the story of Lundy – take 2. |
Minutes
after waving the day visitors off on the ferry, Beccy took a group of staying
visitors snorkelling. And then in the late evening (aware that an easterly was
brewing the following day which sends the seals scurrying for shelter) she did
a seal survey on foot along the coast path.
In the gathering twilight, amongst the last group of hauled out seals, Beccy spotted the pale, female seal with something strange around its neck, possibly a bin liner or bag. The seal was rubbing her neck on the rocks and scratching at it with her flippers. As Beccy said, “seals are known as the Labradors of the sea, curious and playful, especially our Lundy seals and they will investigate strange objects.” She told us there was a small chance that the seal might be able to rub the plastic off – they have several seals with ring scars from objects which have luckily come off, and seawater helps healing. Last year a playful seal allowed a diver, out with the charter boat, the Jessica Hettie to get close enough to remove some rubbish from its neck. Frustratingly, as Beccy explains, they can’t dart and tranquilise seals on Lundy. There are no long sandy beaches and a seal would slip into the sea and drown before they could help it. Beccy said she would try and keep an eye on her. One positive thing is that she is relatively easy to identify because she is so pale. As I write, she hasn’t seen her for a week or so – so if you see her – let us know |
It
wasn’t until we watched the film rushes that we noticed the plastic bag
floating innocently in the sea next to her. The following day, the promised easterly,
blew more rubbish towards the island including plastic bottles which we spotted
bobbing in the harbour. Last year, I was
gutted that we couldn’t film a seal survey out on the boat because we had the
perfect conditions with seals swimming all around the dive boat in glorious
clear water. This year, as it was getting dark and Simon’s stomach was rumbling
and thinking of that promised meal in the Tavern, we spotted the injured seal
–and I like to think it was meant. It’s
only a small part of the film, but marine litter is something Beccy, Simon and
I and of course many of you feel really strongly about – so please forgive the
following rant!
|
Walking the
coast, or out on a boat, I get the sense that year on year the problem of
marine litter is getting worse. Obviously the winter storms, early in 2014
churned up the seabed and released more rubbish. And with our friends at Clean
Marine, the two minute beach clean and Surfers against Sewage all busy
spreading the message - it may be that awareness has increased too. But our
behaviour is still adding to the problem. More and more people are using face
wipes or exfoliants instead of flannel and water and flushing them down the toilet.
People casually wash used contact lenses down the sink. Tiny bits of plastic too small for the
filters, head out to sea and to marine wildlife they look just like plankton. Items dumped on the land are gathered up by
rainwater and carried by our streams and rivers out to sea. When I see those tattered
bags of dog shit hanging from gorse or brambles, I wonder how many of them will
end up in the sea anyway? So, I know it’s difficult to pick people up on
something they do casually, without meaning harm, but please encourage your
friends and colleagues to bin or recycle rather than flush or dump! Maybe get
them to watch the film!!
The story of the injured seal, plus the fact that we filmed on the island, rather than out on a boat meant that for our five minute film I had to drop one story, I’d planned to feature. Last Summer, before our first trip to Lundy we filmed the seals that roost off Mortehoe to help make the connection between the mainland and the island. Apologies to Dave Jenkins and Dawn Murphy from Morte Wildlife Group (and Sue Sayer from the Cornish seal group who analyses all the data) that they didn’t make the main film. We hope you enjoy this outtake! |
Remember these are pregnant seals resting! Please do not disturb. The code of conduct for watching seals is posted on out boat trips page!
These short
films are documentaries, which means that we go with the story- and the story
changes continually from research through pitch, treatment, shooting script,
what we film on the day – paper edit to final picture lock. In the original
pitch for the Lundy film we planned to head out on the Oldenburg ferry (at that
point the biggest boat in the series) and transfer to the tiny island RIB to
film Beccy surveying seals. In May 2015 when we filmed, a year after my initial
research trip, the island boat still hadn’t arrived, delayed by funding and
other issues. But MS Oldenburg was there on each and every trip to ferry us
back and forth.
|
The Oldenburg
is one of North Devon’s iconic boats, she sails from both Bideford and
llfracombe and if we’d had more ‘slots’ she’d have merited a film in her own
right. In fact she’s tried very hard to appear in all our films! Last year,
when we started filming Boat Stories, she was in Ilfracombe harbour as we set
off lobster potting. When we filmed the gig rowers out practising on the Taw
& Torridge estuary, she was out doing a music, sunset cruise; she’s slipped
into the fine cut for the pilot boat film and she even got a mention in Life’s
Journey on the Torridge as Dave Gabe help refit her engines when she first came to
Lundy.
(Image of Brian below not Jerry!) |
I love boats but (as you probably know by now) I’m more interested in people, hence this outtake (above) from Jerry, who by the way also captains the sea trials for the Irish navy ships built at Appledore shipyard.
|
We recorded
her captain Jerry Waller, telling us more about her history. ‘’She was originally
a ferry for the Frisian islands, and then she became a ‘butter boat’ selling dairy produce from all the farms and trading in duty free
booze and cigarettes so a kind of floating shopping centre. Lundy used to rely
on old fishing vessels, the Balmoral was here for a while, but when the island
decided to invest in visitors they chose the Oldenburg because she could carry
250 passengers and 20 tonnes of cargo and the island needs a vessel which can
do both. For instance right now we’re renovating the church on the island, we
remove all the recycling and we bring the stock off the island.” I once saw a
trailer of sheep and a couple of pigs being loaded, providing extra
entertainment for the passengers.
|
Filming
Beccy at work, trying to show how she juggles running the conservation projects
with looking after visitors, acting as coastguard (her radio constantly
crackling in the background –she is first port of call for visiting boats) filling
dive bottles even making beds for the cottages, when housekeeping is stretched meant
we had a lot more little stories to get into our five minutes. When she saw our
first edit, lovely Beccy wanted us to include more of the island staff into the
film as she didn’t want them to feel left out.
Rob Waterfield, the new island manager told me, there were around 29
staff on the island. We included as many as we could without the short film
becoming a list! Kevin, the farmer scurrying to and fro on his quad bike eluded
us and our plans to film shearwaters, sparrow researchers and the ranger team
were thwarted by the rain which arrived on our last morning. I would love to go
back and make a film on what it’s like living on a small island- how everyone
doubles up to make sure all the roles are covered but also mucks in together. I
wrote a BBC film about island living on Colonsay, several years ago, but as
Beccy says ‘Lundy is unique in that everybody who works here, lives here.”
|
The
volunteers and visitors are also unique and on each visit I meet fascinating
new people. This time I met Lars who designs the stamps for Lundy and was about
to release a new set to celebrate the Landmark’s Trust 60th
anniversary. Lars promised me a set and
I forget to pick it up! And Peter Rothwell who has the most wonderful job – as
Landmark Trust librarian he travels to all the Landmark properties in the south
west, renewing their books. Let me know when you plan to retire please!
On previous visits I’ve met historians, volunteers and religious groups and different researchers working with Lundy Field Society, some funded by the sale of Tim Davis and Tim Jones’s book ‘The Birds of Lundy’. The answer to question posed at the beginning – is that we can’t do justice to Lundy in five minutes, but we hope we’ve given you a flavour of this fascinating island and its people. Only on Lundy, could you watch a visitor saying to reception, “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I’m afraid we have some vermin in our cottage” only to be told. “Those will be our resident pygmy shrews, they’re very rare and unique to the island, you’re lucky enough to have spotted one.” In other words ‘don’t shout about it or the others will want one too!’ Huge thank you to Beccy, who was lovely to work with and wonderfully patient with us. Thanks too to Jonny for his help in telling us where to film and running us up and down that steep hill! Thank you to Derek for enabling our visit and allowing us back a second time! And of course to the shore staff, the crew of the Oldenburg and the many other staff on Lundy, who looked after us so well during our stay, including those we didn’t meet busy in housekeeping or maintenance or up in the office. Thanks also to Simon Vacher for returning to Lundy to film Take 2 and for being a great companion on location. He didn’t find it hard – he loves filming outside in glorious Devon. He’s not so keen on editing, especially when the sunshine is calling him outside –but you can see from his work he is highly talented at both. Thank you to Mark Harrington who generously lent me his laptop for almost a week, in an emergency, when the software upgrade on the edit proved too much for mine. And thanks to Rosamund Harpur who composed and played the flute music in the film. We approached Ros, the evening she graduated and she gamely agreed to turn something around to our deadline. When I didn’t hear from her I assumed she was out partying and celebrating – but turned out she had several performances and recitals in the same busy week. |
Details on
how to visit Lundy, all year round can be found on our boat trips page. Just beware
you first visit may not be your last. I leave you with Becky talking about the
spell Lundy exerts over some people and a montage of some of the shots which
didn’t make our short film.